I heard today that the A’s sent 7 players to last summer’s All Star Game. They’ve since dealt 5 of them.
This might be the least exciting off-season in recent memory for the Yankees.
Signing Chase Headley was OK. They can’t trust A-Rod to play the field and and their options were limited. He is a terrific defender, but he’s already peaked as a hitter.
Didi Gregorius is another plus defender, but he hasn’t proven he can hit MLB pitching, especially against lefties.
They missed out on Brandon McCarthy but brought back Chris Capuano. Ugh.
Cashman’s lastest move is incomprehensible. Martin Prado and David Phelps for Nathan Eovaldi and Garrett Jones. Eovaldi led the majors in hits allowed and Jones is the second coming of Lyle Overbay. Yeesh.
It appears the strategy is take a chance on some young talent maturing and hoping that Teixeira, Beltran, Ellsbury and McCann all improve over last year. Good luck with that.
New commissioner Rob Manfred says he’s interested in the possibility of eliminating defensive shifts in order to promote more offense in the game.
Personally, I think it’s a terrible idea. Sure, it’s frustrating to see your player rip a liner into right field only to be thrown out by the second baseman standing 200 feet away from home plate. But the idea of keeping a team from playing as smart as it can really bugs me. If you want to change some physical element of the game (mound height, etc.), have at it. But something about saying, “Hey, we all know the ball is probably going to go over here, but you have to stand over there” just makes no sense to me.
Thoughts?
I think it’s a terrible idea. Shifts have been a part of the game since the 19th century. Baseball is a game of strategy and (mostly) playing probability.
The idea of eliminating defensive shifts is just so insanely stupid that I cannot believe it would even be mentioned.
Do fans like more offense? Sure, but fans also like strategy and tactics and teams trying new ways to beat each other. Surely to God there is a way to increase offense without doing away with something people actually like.
And Christ, it’s not like it’s 1968 again. Last year the average team scored about four runs per game, just a tiny bit more. In 1992, they scored about… well, just a bit north of four runs a game. Do you remember everyone in 1992 talking about how offense was too low? Me neither.
Maybe they can eliminate defensive movement altogether. Draw a circle, diameter ten feet, in all nine fielding positions, and require fielders to be standing in the circle when the ball is put into play. :rolleyes:
Well, he’s off to a great start. First, do no harm, Mr. Manfred. His words:
Oh, lord help us, he wants to tinker with baseball rules to eliminate any possible competitive advantage that teams can come up with by using statistical analysis.
Say what you will about Bud Selig, but I believe he always had baseball’s best interest in mind.
I read the story hoping against hope that some comment had been taken out of context, or blown out of proportion. But no. The guy came right out and said that he’d be “open to pursuing” this.
This is very, very depressing.
Maybe we could eliminate curve balls while we’re at it. I want every game to be one-dimensional pull hitters competing in a Home Run Derby. I’m too stupid to appreciate anything else!
In today’s A-Rod news, the Yankees are considering voiding his milestone bonuses. Sure, he will most likely pass Willie Mays at 660 home runs, but he has little chance of catching Ruth and no chance of surpassing Bonds.
This raises the larger question: Why can’t the Yankees void his contract entirely? Surely he has violated his contract by his admitted use of P.E.D.'s. Firing A-Rod would send an even stronger message against steroid use than suspensions. Come to think of it, the Brewers should be allowed out of Ryan Braun’s contract too.
So let me see if I have this straight: the new commissioner wants games to run faster, and he’s going to do it in part by, er, getting rid of defensive shifts, so there will be more hits, and, as a consequence, more at-bats in a game?
[QUOTE=The New Commish]
I mean, we have really smart people working in the game.
[/QUOTE]
None of whom are in the Commisioner’s office.
This is a solution to a problem that no one thinks is a problem. If a LH pull hitter gets robbed of too many hits to right, he’ll start dropping a bunt down the 3B line and stretching it to a double, and teams will start re-thinking the shift. But until that happens, I don’t hear anyone complaining except this moron.
Unless he plays for the Rangers, then he’ll keep hitting straight into the shift because, that’s who he is, dammit. Besides, all the fans get happy and they set off the fireworks when he homers into the right field porch and that’s what’s really important, isn’t it? 
Maybe we could make home plate narrower while we’re at it. Or let each batter identify his own strike zone based on his preferred pitch location.
I think any smart person would avoid potential controversy on day 1 of the big, new job.
Pertinent entry, with video, from the Giants blog.
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That’s a perfect example of why eliminating the shift is the stupidest baseball idea ever. If you’re getting paid millions of dollars a year to hit a baseball, and you can’t figure out how to hit it to the half of the infield with only one defender instead of the half of the infield with three defenders…then you really shouldn’t be getting paid millions of dollars to hit a baseball.
While the shift has been around pretty much forever, it was rather infrequently used until the last couple years, and really just seemed to come into vogue last season. It shouldn’t take too long before hitting coaches start to stress opposite-field hitting (as most of the time it’s dead-pull hitters that are shifted against)…then the shift will stop working, infielders will go back to their ‘normal’ positions, and life will go on.
So what constitutes a “shift”? Are they going to put chalk boxes on the field for each defensive position that each player must stay in?
Sheesh!
If I was a semi-moronic commissioner, all that would be necessary would be to put in a rule saying the shortstop must play to the left of 2B.
No, they can use that spray can foam like the soccer refs are using now. They’ll have to implement a pitch clock or an inning clock so the inning won’t last longer than the foam.
Also a rule defining what a shortstop is. The only defensive positions currently defined in the official rules are pitcher and catcher. There’s a rule covering the construction of the first baseman’s mitt, but the rules don’t define the position in any way other than this. The definition of a reverse force double play contains examples that refer to the first baseman, second baseman, shortstop and third baseman without defining them.
I suppose you could require that two defensive players be positioned on the left side of the infield. That way you would have to define any of the positions. That is, if you want to outlaw one of the most interesting changes to happen to the sport in years.